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phpregexpreg-match

preg_match how to know partial value exist

Basically my preg_match is working fine. However when only a partial value of the text (not digits) exist, I need to know an attempt was tried to enter the right thing.

Example 1:

$text = "2000 FC
2 A
100 FH
1200 ACT FC
";

Example 2:

$text = "2000 FC
2 A
100 FH
ACT FC
";

CODE:

preg_match("~(?P<value>\d+(?:.\d+)*?)\h(?P<unit>ACT\sFC)~", $text, $act_fc);

Example 1 is showing the correct text "1200 ACT FC". When preg_match is executed 1200 is assigned to value and ACT_FC is assigned to unit in the $act_fc array.

However if there is a case like Example 2 with "ACT FC" only, then $act_fc array is empty.

Without doing another preg_match to check only for "ACT FC", is there a way to return ACT_FC was found? Maybe "unit" could be forced to populate the array and "value" could be null.

NOTE: I am dealing with matching data between newlines, so that part of the code is important to stay nearly the same.

Solution

  • You can make the value part optional with (?:...)?:

    preg_match("/(?:(?P<value>\d+(?:\.\d+)*?)\h)?(?P<unit>ACT\sFC)/", $text, $act_fc);

    Here is demo. And here is regex tester.